This invention relates to telephone station sets and it relates, in particular, to general-purpose sets incorporating multimedia input/output facilities for enhancing the utility of a telephone system for users thereof.
There are known in the art numerous computer-based services which have much to offer persons who are capable of accessing those services. However, the equipment usually available for providing such access is normally bulky, expensive, and requires considerable sophistication for use. Furthermore, because of the aforementioned equipment limitations, the available computer-based services often are not structured to provide many services that could be useful to either ordinary telephone users, or infrequent service users, or handicapped persons.
Telephone system terminals have been known to include audio, video, and manual transducing facilities in one piece of equipment. One example is the J. F. Tyson U.S. Pat. No. 3,521,008. However, such prior art does not teach equipment that is useful for convenient human interaction with computer-based services. It focuses instead on a normal telephone facility which is collocated with, but not cooperatively associated with, video equipment.
Video telephone service is also known as shown, for example, in the U.S. Pat. No. 3,587,053 to J. J. Horzepa et al. The latter type of service has limited capability (only a telephone dialing pad) for communication with data processing equipment and is otherwise useful for sending and receiving pictures. However, the video telephone equipment is bulky and complex, and the service is not suited for communication by way of narrow band voice and data signal channels such as the telephone network channels which span the world at the present time.
Microprocessor based computer terminals with manual input and video output are frequently advertised in the technical press by a number of manufacturers at the present time. However, these terminals are so large that they are unsuitable for locations of the type where one ordinarily finds only a telephone station set; and they also lack the audio telephone capability. One current example of such terminals is the TEC, Inc., Model 70 terminal CRT terminal with function keys.
A pocket directory-calculator in U.S. Pat. No. 4,117,542 to J. Klausner et al. includes a microprocessor controlled telephone-type keypad, a display, and an audio signal generating system that is stated to produce audible multifrequency dialing tones representing a retrieved telephone number. However, the equipment is not suited to accessing computer-based services in a telephone system.
Calculators with different types of limited telephone system access are known as represented in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,117,542 to Klausner et al. and Macy's Superphone 7700; but they also lack the full textual access to computer-based services.
It is further known, as taught in the H. S. McDonald U.S. Pat. No. 4,007,334, to provide switched computer-based services relating to arranging subscriber call connections in a digital switching system. Also the H. G. Alles U.S. Pat. No. 4,112,258 teaches digital switching of voice and data signals.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,566,370 to Worthington, Jr., et al. and 4,130,881 to Haessler et al. show display arrangements to facilitate the taking of medical histories by an automated multiple choice scheme. However, the equipment is large and does not enable the patient to make full textual inputs as are usually needed for use of computer based services generally.
None of the foregoing art provides a telephone user with a convenient, single instrument having audio and text transmission and reception facilities such as are necessary for utilizing a telephone communication network to provide subscriber access to computer-based services.